A Day in Life at HKU

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Itโ€™s been about 2 months since I started school at HKU, so I figured a โ€œDay in my Lifeโ€ post would let yโ€™all know what happens in my everyday life here in Hong Kong.

Most of my days start at 11 AM in my dorm room. I live in a hall on campus, and itโ€™s actually more spacious than I expected an HK dorm to be. When I think of a typical room in HK, I think of a cramped and restricted space due to the limited amount of area in HK. However, my room is really nice and I even have enough space to do my Jillian Michaelโ€™s โ€œ6 Weeks to 6 Packsโ€ routine.

The most convenient thing about my hall is that there is a canteen inside the hall, so it is very convenient to grab breakfast or lunch here, and the food is actually really good. There is all style of food including Western and Chinese. I usually get BBQ pork and chicken with rice and Sichuan noodle soup as these are my all-time favorite Chinese dishes here.

At 12:30 AM, I am probably in class. In most cases, there is one lecture per week and the lecture usually lasts for 2 hours, and there is also one tutorial per week which lasts for 1 hour. On Tuesdays, I have 2 lectures and 1 tutorial, and I end my day at 6:30 PM. I like the fact that there is only 1 lecture per week, but since it is 2 hours long, sometimes my mind does drift away during the middle of the lecture.

I am part of a dance crew at HKU, and we practice 4 days a week, 3-4 hours per day starting at 7 PM. I love dancing, and this is a great way to add some exercise into my daily routine, as we even do crunches and planks during our warm ups. The dance crew is actually pretty intense compared to my dance team back in the states, but HK has a pretty strong youth and dance culture, so it makes sense. We are practicing for something called U-MASS dance in which dance teams from all the universities in HK will come together to show off what they have been practicing. I am really nervous but Iโ€™m excited to show everyone what weโ€™ve been working on.

After dance practice, itโ€™s usually 10:30 or 11 PM, so I head to a restaurant (usually McDonaldโ€™s since itโ€™s open late and itโ€™s super close to my hall) to grab late night dinner. After that, I head back to my home and read, study, and work on assignments like the studious person that I am.

So yeah, thatโ€™s basically what it looks like on a regular weekday for me. On Wednesdays, I donโ€™t have class until 4:30 PM so I would usually go out and explore HK. I am really loving the culture and lifestyle here in HK, but the semester is almost ending soon, and Iโ€™ve been a little stressed out over grades since I am taking all my classes for letter grades. However, I know I can do a great job if I try, and thatโ€™s what Iโ€™ll do. I hope yโ€™all enjoy this piece, and Iโ€™ll see yโ€™all next time!

 

 

Tan Vu

<i>Hello in your host country language</i>: ไฝ ๅฅฝ (Ni Hao) <i>University</i>: University of California Berkeley <i>Expected graduation year</i>: 2019 <i>Destination</i>: Hong Kong <i>Program Provider</i>: University of California Education Abroad Program <i>Major / minor</i>: Media Studies and Social Welfare double major <i>Language of Study</i>: Cantonese <i>Demographic background</i>: Asian-American, First-generation, LGBTQ <i>Future career aspirations</i>: entertainment/film industry <i>Top 3 goals for study abroad</i>: coming out of my comfort zone; doing as many excursions as possible, joining multiple student organizations, and traveling to other countries to gain more problem-solving skills and be a more independent person; learn more about the media culture in Hong Kong and how that has an effect on the countryโ€™s culture to have a more diverse knowledge of the film industry